East of the West

I have always wanted to take a trip to Europe. There is so much I want to do and see. See the beautiful cities and try excellent food. Europe is definitely on my bucket list. As a graduate student and future strategic communications practitioner, I am very interested in how the world of PR differs from that of the US. According to Kara Alaimo, public relations is highly developed in the region; however, the definition varies significantly across the continent. While public relations in the U.S. is often defined as relationship management with the public, in Europe, the concept is conceptualized as communicating in the public sphere. European academics have identified four models of public relations practice:

1. Reflective

- to assess changing societal standards, values, and viewpoints and discuss them with organization members to adjust their standards and values/standpoints accordingly.

2. Managerial

- to devise strategies for communicating with and maintaining relationships with public groups to gain public trust and mutual understanding.

3. Operational

- to prepare communication means for the organization to aid in the formulation of its communication methods and mediums. This role is concerned with services and is responsible for carrying out the communication plans created by others.

4. Educational

- Its goal is to assist all organization members in becoming communicatively competent to respond to societal demands.

Similarities

I don’t know about you, but I see more similarities rather than differences within these four models. Reflective seems to be comprised of the levels of conducting market research. Who is your audience, what do they want, and why should they come to you for it? Managerial is nothing more than a strategic communications campaign. Operational, perhaps, is the drafting of media content and maintaining the organization’s social media platforms. Educational is simply media training. What I will say is that, in Europe, it appears that PR practitioners seem to have a seat at the table versus in the U.S. we are often an afterthought and are brought in the be on the reactive side of things.

Central and Eastern Europe

Let's take a trip to the East of the West. The CEE, Central and Eastern Europe, countries were viewed by many Western Europeans and Americans as a gray and homogeneous region behind the Iron Curtain for decades. CEE is a political and cultural concept rather than a geographical one. All CEE countries share the tradition of the former "communist system," as described in the United States, or "real socialism," as these countries used to refer to themselves. They are now referred to as transition because of the political, economic, and social changes from a single-party political system to a pluralistic society and from a centrally planned economy to a market economy. The region's countries differ in many ways. Since the early 1990s, Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have been unique historical processes. This process included former "socialists," centrally planned economies shifting from planned to market economies, party dictatorship to democracy, and socialism to capitalism.

How Far East is East from West

The nature and scope of public relations practices in developed market economies, such as the United States and European Union countries, differ significantly from what is known as "transitional public relations." There are two critical differences between "transitional PR" and that of the Western world:

1. The burden endured by the past system's legacy in people's perceptions and the fundamental economic conditions that transition economies operate in. The structure of the economy and the methods for resource allocation generate a unique combination of limits in applying universal public relations principles, as represented in ways of thinking, due to the legacy of the old communist system, as reflected in ways of thinking.

2. The other difference is that public relations in transition economies perform a transitional function not seen in developed market economies. This function can be defined as assisting in the introduction and adoption of market economy and democratic methods and institutions in former command economies.

Journalism VS Public Relations

Now let’s talk about another difference within the realm of communication that may affect the global concept of public relations. Journalism and public relations are quite similar and quite different all at once. The two share a very oxymoronic relationship. Journalists are influenced by their work environment, with influences drawn from the nature of their profession, their workplace, and an individual journalist's unique worldview. Likewise, PR practitioners are heavily influenced by what is going on in their environment and personal experience. Journalism speaks to the very general public, while PR has a more specific audience. In reading the academic article The interaction of journalism and public relations in Russia: A self-perception by Greg Simons and Dmitry Strovsky, I found a very “Matrix” connection. According to the article, there is a growing body of work on the global decline of professional journalism. The interaction and collaboration of journalists and public relations (PR) practitioners in mass media news content are factors used to demonstrate the decline of journalism. As I indicated, the two professions' purposes and goals are entirely different, albeit there are some apparent similarities between these forms of mass communication. Studies of the relationship between journalism and public relations in the United States demonstrate an inherent conflict and mutual reliance.

"The Martix"

In my mind, at first glance, I think of journalism being the machine and PR being the humans within the matrix. In Russia specifically, there is lots of propaganda being disseminated through the media by way of journalism. This is the same, as seen in “The Matrix,” where machines manipulate the world to fit their view on society's beliefs. On the other side, you have PR professionals, the human rebels, who are essentially fighting back and bringing back awareness to those trapped in the misinformation and disinformation of the machine’s web. After reading through the article in its totality, however, their views are in opposition to mine. Their perspective was that journalism is concerned with objectivity, verification, and independence in a perfect world. It attempts to engage and enlighten its audiences to help them make more informed judgments. On the other hand, PR is focused on managing relationships through communication to convince a target audience to make a choice that is in the client's best interests. However, unlike journalism, which has made serving as the fourth estate a core component of its character, PR lacks any underlying philosophical objective. I did take this assessment with a grain of salt simply because I am aware that the true hero and villain does not lie within the profession, but the circumstance. What do you think?